(In Pics) Six Paintings from History with a Hidden Secret

Paintings, and other depictions of scenes and individuals from long-lost cultures, are one of our major windows into the past. Through artwork we can understand what these people looked like, how they dressed and lived, what they considered to be important, and therefore who they were.

Often the insight is, almost uniquely in historic records, a deeply personal one. Only fiction and literature from the seventeenth century offers a comparatively candid assessment of the individual, but unlike fiction these paintings are, on the surface at least, offering a reflection of real life.

That is not to say that paintings do not often contain a meta commentary all of their own. Here are six such examples from history where the artist has inserted something hidden in their art.

1. The Creation of Adam: Mind over Matter

*The Sistine Chapel ceiling is justifiably recognized as one of the true masterpieces of history, but that is not to say* *Michelangelo* was not above putting a few secrets in his depictions of which his papal masters might not have approved. Most famously the artist, drawing on his experiences with dissection and human anatomy, depicted *God* *in his central* Creation of Adam as a giant brain, the flowing robes which surround him forming the distinctive shape. Was the master putting God in a human mind a blasphemous commentary in the heart of the *Vatican? (Michelangelo /* *Public Domain*)

2. Café Terrace at Night: The Last Coffee

*Arguably,* *Van Gogh’s*Café Terrace at Night might be a more appropriate inclusion in the Sistine Chapel than a painting suggesting God comes from the human mind. One expert in Van Gogh, Jared Baxter, has argued that this painting is actually a depiction of the last supper. The standing figure at the bar is surrounded by twelve figures, one of whom is slipping, Judas-like, through the door. This focus on the group, with hidden crucifixes including one above the *“Jesus”* *figure and encroaching darkness all around, seems to suggest the reference is more than just a coincidence (Vincent Van Gogh /* *Public Domain*)

3. The Ambassadors: Et in Arcadia Ego?

*Nobody captured the* *Tudors* and their court better than Hans Holbein. His portraits, particularly of Henry VIII, are a dazzling opportunity to see these courtiers, merchants and kings as they saw themselves. But the great master was also keen to fill his pictures with symbols – some argue that there was even a warning in his painting of Anne of Cleves sent to *Henry VIII* *that the king would not find the “Flanders Mare” comely. Here, in his picture* The Ambassadors, Holbein has hidden a skull at the bottom of the picture, grossly distorted and viewable only from an acute angle. Such an inclusion is likely to be a memento mori, a reminder of death. “After all,” the skull is saying, “et in arcadia ego” (I am also in the garden, ie. I am a part of life) (Hans Holbein the Younger / *Public Domain*)

4. Madame X: Scandalous Exposure

*The painting by John Singer Sargent of* *Paris* socialite Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau caused a public uproar when it was first shown to the public in 1884. The furore caused the artist to change the portrait, rename the painting to avoid shaming the subject, and move to *London* to escape persecution. The problem? As the surviving preliminary sketches show us, the painting at first had no shoulder straps, depicting the dress instead as sliding off the body of the subject. This was enough to scandalize the Parisian elite, and the painting became that of the anonymous “Madame X” (Metropolitan Museum of Art / *Public Domain*)

5. Bacchus: Portrait of the Artist as a Corrupting Influence

*Caravaggio, one of the most fascinating characters of the* *Italian* Renaissance, was a thug and a dissolute. He was also an undisputed master and he definitely had a type: his paintings tend towards depictions of dark eyed youths in various states of undress. But in his painting entitled Bacchus the artist may had hidden more: recent research has discovered a reflection, apparently of Caravaggio himself, in the carafe of wine in the lower left. It is almost as if Caravaggio styles himself as the corrupting influence over his subject, who is drinking from the wine (Commonists / *Public Domain*)

6. The Music Lesson and a Hidden Impurity

*If there is one painting which rewards an educated eye, it is Vermeer’s* Music Lesson from the 1660s. On the surface, everything appears to be in order, with the girl taking instruction from a man who appears to be her tutor as she glances demurely down at her virginal, the name being no coincidence. But look closer: we can see in the mirror that she is not looking at her chaste instrument, but glancing aside suggestively to the instructor himself. Furthermore, there is a carafe of wine on this table as well, an odd inclusion for a *music* *lesson. Finally the cello, lying on the floor, suggests a* *female form* *and points to what is really happening here, when they think nobody is looking (Johannes Vermeer /* *Public Domain*)

Top Image: Detail from the Sistine Chapel’s painting Creation of Adam: did Michelangelo dare secretly suggest that God was all in the mind? Source: Michelangelo / Public Domain.

By Joseph Green

References

Joseph Green

Joseph Green is editor for Historic Mysteries, which combines his background in English Literature with a lifelong fascination for the strange and the unexplained. Read More

France God.Henry VIII Italy Michelangelo music Netherlands Sistine Chapel United Kingdom Van Gogh